New Blog...

Hello Everyone. It has been a crazy summer...it is my busiest time of year. I am hoping to get back into blogging soon - but at a new location - http://web.mac.com/kevandsarah. My laptop crashed so we have become mac users, and I am so amazed at how easy it is to make a webiste on their web program. So I hope you check out our website and new blog!

Monday Nights

I am going to miss Monday nights. The past year Kevin and I have had a group of Senior boys from the youth group over for dinner every Monday night. I fix a meal and we sit or stand around the table - eat, have good conversations and grow in relationship with one another. This years group of boys started with only four and by the end of the year there were 10 coming on every Monday night. It was such a blessing to feed them and listen to them interact with one another and with Kevin. Kevin and I have grown to love these boys and are excited for their next stage in life. They have all recently graduated and we cannot wait to see how the Lord is going to use them in this world. They are amazing men of God.

Pepperdine

I have fallen behind on my posts. As soon as Kevin and I got back from our trip to Vegas and Cali I hit the ground running with our Youth Group's Garage Sale to raise money for our summer mission trips. So sorry this is kind of old news.

We had a great trip to Pepperdine. We went to a Dodger's game with the Lavendar's. We had all-you-can-eat Dodger Dogs and sat in the outfield. It was a blast and really neat to see to be at a baseball field that I had never been to before. It was fun.



We stayed with a friend of ours named Jen and slept in late everyday. We ate some great food - Marmalade's, BJ's, etc. I also helped lead a middle/high school oriented event during Pepperdine Lectures called The View. I had a blast working alongside Jim Hinkle. We had some great speakers come in - Mitch Wilburn, Jeff Walling and Sean Palmer. All who did an excellent job. The students were fun to get to know and hang out with for 3 days.


This trip was such a blessing for Kevin and I. We got to relax and not think about work. It was good to do that for a week. We are very thankful to God for this time to get away.

Viva Las Vegas

A little over a week ago Kev and I went to Vegas for Kev's cousin's wedding. It was a great time to be with the family. We spent the long weekend hanging out at the pool, sleeping in late, we caught a show and did the wedding thing. This is the 2nd time Kevin and I have been to Vegas. We like going much better during the week, instead of the weekend. My favorite part of Vegas is the water show at the Bellagio. On our first trip we missed it - it must have been under repair - but this time it was going every 15 minutes or so.








If you have never been it is the water show see in Ocean 11 and it is coordinated to music. It was also my favorite part of Jodie and Derrick's wedding. They got married on a balcony at the Bellagio and when they were pronounced husband and wife the water show began to the music of their wedding. It was so cool. Here are some pics from the weekend. Enjoy.

New Addition

It is always fun to find a good buy in the most unlikely places. For my birthday my parents bought us tickets to the Stock Show and Rodeo - we had a blast - I blogged about it in March - but that is besides the point. While we were at the Stock Show and Rodeo, enjoying the vendors and great food - we came upon a vendor selling furniture. We had been talking about getting a new kitchen table and chairs and guess what - we found it at the Stock Show and Rodeo, of all places. It was the exact kind that Kevin and I had been talking about. We inquired about the price and it was an incredible deal. We decided we couldn't pass it up, so we bought it. We had to wait a couple of months in order to get it, but it is in and we love it.

He Is Risen...

I absolutely love Easter! It is probably one of my favorite holidays. It is the day that we remember and celebrate Christ's resurrection! Some of my favorite things about this Easter are:

1. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

2. Passion Week - this is an activity we have done with the youth group for the past 5 years. We get together with some of our fellow downtown churches and have a service every night of the week, beginning of Palm Sunday and ending with a sunrise service on Easter morning. As a youth group we get the chance to walk alongside of Jesus on His way to the cross.

3. The snow - yes - it snowed in Texas the day before Easter and we had snow covered buildings on Easter morning.

4. Sunrise Service - there is nothing like celebrating the resurrection of the Lord first thing in the morning. As the service begins you go from the darkness of the crucifixion and the grave to the rising of the sun, which symbolizes just that - the rising of the Son!

5. The flowering of the cross - turning a piece of wood that symbolizes death into something beautiful that symbolizes new life.

6. Val singing Arise My Love on Thursday and Sunday morning.

7. The picture the Maxwell's painted at our Tuesday night Passion Week Service - how powerful it was, especially for those who had never seen them paint before.

8. The Jones Cream Soda after the lenten season.

9. Watching the Masters with some of our friends on Sunday afternoon.

10. Taking a well deserved Easter nap.

This is just a few that I can think of - I bet I could go on and on. What were some of your favorite memories of this Easter?

The Dunking Booth

Well since we got back from Miami, I have hit the ground running at work. We had a Spring Family Carnival two weeks ago to raise money for our High School Summer Mission Trips - we are going to Mexico and New Orleans this summer. It was a lot of fun - we almost got rained out, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day. My favorite part of the day was the Dunking Booth. We started the carnival later than we were expecting due to the weather, but all the High School students were there ready to work. Since we were unsure if we were going to cancel or not, and we had already rented the Dunking Booth for the day - I thought I will go and sit in it and let the students have some fun. It was overcast, the West Texas wind was a blowin' and it was about 55 degrees outside - so just a little cold. The water that I was about to fall into was straight out of a fire hydrant - so it was COLD and very rusty as you can tell from the pics. You're supposed to be able to see through the plastic window in the front. The first time I went in it was pretty cold, but it wasn't until I got out and sat back on the bent that I really got cold from the lovely West Texas Wind. My husband showed up for the glorious occasion and it only took him two throws and he had me dunked. I had one student who plays baseball step up to throw and I got so scared about being knocked in that I jumped off the seat and into the water without him even hitting the target. All the parents and students got a kick out of that.

Throughout the day I had some great people lined up to be dunked - the director of Young Life, a very challenging Biology teacher and English teacher from Abilene High, the head football coach from Abilene High and our preacher Mike Cope to name a few. They were all such great sports, we are very thankful for them. One of my favorite moments of the day was when my husband's grandmother showed up to try to dunk Mike. She is over 70 years old and on her second throw she had Mike dunked! We had a great day and the Lord was good. We raised several thousand dollars. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day a success! It was a blessing.